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Saturday, December 2, 2017

Vaki Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Väki aims to deliver strong musical art, exploring death and calling the spirits of the afterlife. Taking our listeners into a dark journey through the darkest human emotions. Our musical style evolved naturally towards black metal since we started rehearsing and writing songs in 2016. Our journey has lead us to a promising start as we have released our first EP “Kirous”, bringing upon inspiration for the coming year of 2018.

2.So far you have released one ep, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

“Kirous” consists of two songs, which represent different ranges of emotions: aggression, hate and melancholy, among others. The songs form a solid and dynamic EP with great variety. Our approach to black metal is based on strong, diverse compositions as well as high quality production.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

Lyrical themes revolve around death, pain, misery, and disregarding all boundaries of fabricated morality and dogma. Furthermore, exploring human emotions as well as experiences that cause emotional pain and inner conflict.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Väki'?

Death, impurity & chaos is the underlying inspiration behind Väki. In ancient Finnish paganism the word “väki” had a special meaning which could be described as a ‘group of spirits’. Different environments, places, elements, as well as human individuals could possess these powers of “väki” which could than be manifested as an epidemic of disease and death, among other things. We as a band, and performers, represent this essence of death and forgotten spirits.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

We have yet to perform any gigs. However, we have a couple of them booked in the beginning of next year. Our stage performance will reflect the themes of our lyrics, and dark atmosphere of the compositions. We invite our listeners to join us into journey of discovering our admiration to death, misery and darkness.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

So far we’ve booked two shows here in Finland for 2018. Our first ever performance will take place on the 19th of January at Bar 15, in Seinäjoki. The next one will happen on the 10th of March at Varjobaari, in Tampere. After that we’ll set our focus on recording our debut album.

7.The EP was released on 'Redefining Darkness Records', are you happy with the support the label has given you so far?

The label has proven to be very supportive and we’re very excited about our collaboration with them. Thomas Haywood, from Redefining Darkness Records, has shown us genuine enthusiasm and professionalism. The label is releasing “Kirous” on cassette on the 11th of December, the cassette turned out really awesome-looking too! We hope our collaboration will prove to be as fruitful in the future as it has turned out to be so far.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of black metal?

We are still waiting for more reviews to come out but so far it seems people are generally impressed with our music as we have received great feedback and favorable reviews. However, both positive and negative feedback is welcome.

9.When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

At the moment we’re in pre-production phase - roughly recording songs at our rehearsal place to figure out which ones will end up on the album and whether we still need more songs to be able to form a strong album in it’s entirety. So, at this point, it’s a little too early to say when the album will be released. Careful estimation could be early 2019, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

“Kirous” gives a pretty good idea of the style on our first full length album that, however, will have more variety and generally a wider spectrum of what Väki has to offer. Nobody knows where we’re headed after the album is released. We don’t want to set our music to have too strict of boundaries because we feel like that kills creativity and natural flow of songwriting.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

Bands such as Emperor, Mgla, Deathspell Omega & Burzum have influenced our style of black metal. “EOD : A Tale of Dark Legacy”, by The Great Old Ones and “The Poisonous Path”, by Behexen are a couple of the recent releases we have enjoyed listening to.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?

A few interests of ours include activities like brewing and drinking beer, playing video games and taking part in occasional coding projects. Some of us are also dog owners.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

First of all, we would like to thank everyone who has supported us so far! We are very excited to really get things going in terms of live shows and working on the upcoming debut album. Hopefully you’ll join us on this journey to explore and embrace the darkest aspects of human existence.